Analyzing the Social Ecology of Social-Emotional Learning and Need Thwarting in a Low-Income Elementary School

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Qualitative Inquiries in Out-of-School Time

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the social-institutional conditions that guide social-emotional learning in a Title One elementary school and its associated afterschool program in the Southeastern United States. This ethnography examined experiences of children, school staff and administration, and program personnel. Data collection spanned four months and included field notes, interviews, and journal entries. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using constant comparison. Results indicated that children’s social-emotional learning was mediated by conflicting social environments. The school provided a high degree of psychological needs thwarting and social control during the school day, particularly based on racial and social class biases, that infiltrated the afterschool program despite positive-youth development programming efforts. Distrust and fear of authority was an outcome.

Authors

• Victoria Shiver, Northern Illinois University

• Michael A. Lawson, University of Alabama

• K. Andrew R. Richards, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign